Statin Therapy Modestly Decreases Blood Pressure

Cholesterol-lowering drugs (statins) may also help lower blood
pressure to a moderate extent, according to the results from a 6-
month University of California, San Diego study. The researchers
based their findings on 1016 men and postmenopausal women
without known heart disease whose low-density lipoprotein (LDL;
"bad") cholesterol levels were high.

During the study, the participants were randomly assigned to
take simvastatin, pravastatin, or placebo. Blood pressure was
measured before, during, and after the trial. Reporting the results
at the recent American Heart Association annual meeting, the
researchers explained that blood pressure was greatly reduced to
a similar degree with both statin drugs. The change was evident
1 month after treatment and disappeared by 2 months after the
medications were stopped. Specifically, the reduction witnessed
was about 7 points for both the upper and lower readings.

Although the study had limitations, researcher Beatrice A.
Golomb, MD, PhD, said the findings "may help to explain stroke
reduction with statins, since LDL cholesterol bears little relationship
to stroke risk, while blood pressure is a potent risk factor."